


Diamond City's Outcasts

by Silent_Winter_Night



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-08-20 09:34:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20225656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_Winter_Night/pseuds/Silent_Winter_Night
Summary: The Sole Survivor (Madelyn) and Nick Valentine both live in Diamond City. Their life is pretty simple for a post-apocolypse world, but a few people in Diamond City aren't too pleased about them living here. Until one day disaster strikes, and suddenly the pair have to make a difficult decision for the city... or for their lives!This is about the adventure they have together, and the developing relationship they gain.Rating may change.





	1. Chapter 1

As Madelyn walked toward Home Plate, she stumbled and fell, hitting her knee on the hardened ground. She looked back to see what she had tripped on, and saw Moe Cronin laughing at her. She had tripped on a baseball bat that he placed on the ground. She got up and brushed off her shirt in disdain and glared back. He stopped laughing quickly, ducked his head down and walked away, but not without muttering something about Madelyn being a mindless idiot. She sighed and was about to continue walking towards Home Plate, but a searing hot pain in her knee made her gasp aloud and she bent down to hold it.  
Suddenly, a dusty arm hit the back of her knees and caused her to fall into the arms of a smiling man with glowing yellow eyes, who carried her into the detective agency where he lived. As he set Madelyn down onto the bed, Nick Valentine reminded her of the fragile human body she walked in, "You oughta be careful walking around Diamond City at night, darling, Moe seems to have it in for you, and that knee of yours is already a problem as it is."

"I'm fine, my knee is fine. Don't overreact, those doctors in Vault 81 are just dramatic." Even as she said this, Madelyn knew those doctors weren't being dramatic. For as long as she could remember back her joints were never in good condition. Some sort of disease that ran in her family caused the tissue behind her knees and elbows to grow too fast, then it would become inflamed and the tissue would swell. it wasn't visible without an x-ray, but it hurt like hell. It had become exponentially worse after she began to be exposed to the massive amounts of radiation that the Commonwealth offered, causing her to constantly be in pain until one day when she fell and couldn't walk, Valentine carried her all the way to the Vault 81. 

"Here, take this," Valentine offered her a stimpak "and stay here for the night. Ellie is out, and I need someone to help me go over all these files."

Madelyn looked out on the desk and floor and noticed that the usually organized case files were now scattered around the room, papers ripped and askew. "Nick, what happened?"

"Well..." Valentine shifted his weight and glanced at the door before continuing, "Myrna... she found a way in while I was asleep." Valentine was able to recharge his batteries without need of an outside source, but sometimes he needed to shut down his other systems to get a full charge, and during this time he would reorganize the information he gathered through the days, and he would call this time "sleeping." While asleep, an atomic bomb could go off and he'd be none the wiser.  
He lifted up his right hand sheepishly and Madelyn could see that the metal was bent and disfigured, a little scorched. when she looked a little closer, the disfigured marks were round, like someone had hit it with a hammer. 

Valentine spoke softly, "Luckily the metal is strong, the institute knew what they were doing there." 

"Hmm... I almost wonder if we can change your... programming... a little... so you can be more alert when sleeping..." Madelyn said this slowly and carefully, knowing full well that her good friend Nick hated thinking of himself as a simple machine. But this was the third time in the week that Myrna had gotten in, and Madelyn wanted to make sure that he'd be safe and it wouldn't be too difficult for her to make that possible, all she would have to do is get his consent to hook his mind up to the computer at Red Rocket.  
Valentine sighed wistfully, thinking about what it might be like to be more human, to be woken up normally without the use of programming. But Madelyn wasn't trying to upset him, she was only trying to help, and it would probably be for the better. 

"Alright, I'll let you do it if you go to the doctor and have them look at your knee. Hitting it could've done some serious damage."

Madelyn laughed and agreed, and she couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt for bringing up his programming. After all, he was more human than anyone she knew. Unlike the people here in Diamond City, he had something called compassion that the people of the Commonwealth seemed to have forgotten, and she found that she was quite attracted to it.


	2. Chapter 2

Madelyn and Valentine sat next to each other at the small circular table, across from Preston Garvey. Surrounding the table was an astounding number of beds, one for each of the residents.  
When there were only a few people living here, Madelyn just made a small room with a few mattresses, but as more and more people moved in she rushed to make a larger building, a house, to give all the new settlers a place to rest. Most of them were pretty happy with it, the conditions they came from out in the Commonwealth was much worse, but Madelyn still wished she had the materials and skills to create a house with individual rooms, but it was going to have to do for now.  
As Preston updated the pair about the latest settlement that needed help, one of the newest settlers stepped into the main room. He headed for the cabinet where people keep any extra clothing then stopped suddenly and stared apprehensively at Valentine. After a moment of the settler gawking, the room fell into an uncomfortable silence.  
Madelyn looked sharply at this man and he looked to the ground and stammered, "When I... when I was twelve a synth attacked us... my, my mother died..."  
Madelyn sighed in frustration before introducing him "Sir, this is my friend Nick Valentine. As long as you live in a settlement protected by the minutemen you are to be friends with him as well. What is your name? I apologize, but so many people have been rushing here lately I can't seem to keep everyone's names straight."  
"My name is Max. Sorry, I didn't mean to upset-"  
"It's fine, I understand. The best way to apologize to us would be to help us get ready with some extra supplies. We're about to go shoot up some feral ghouls and RadAway would be extremely useful, here's some caps. Keep any extra caps you have after buying supplies."  
Madelyn thrust several handfuls of caps into Max's arms, along with the basic list of first aid she needed. Max ran off to go do business with the shopkeepers on the road.  
Valentine looked at her with awe. It still amazed him how she could make people passive. She could relax people who were afraid, the most aggressive people would take orders from her without question. "Thanks darling. You know that was way more caps than he was going to need?"  
"Yeah I'm aware. It'll help the economy here a bit and it'll be my thanks for having him run around."

As Madelyn walked out of the old, pre-war hospital she was hit with a blast of light from the sun and was blinded. Suddenly, her ears were filled with an intense buzzing sound and she grabbed the bladed tire iron off her back and waved it forcefully in front of her. She barely hit the boatfly in front of her and it launched something white at her head. Madelyn tried to duck it, but suddenly fell to the ground, letting out a cry of pain.  
Valentine shot the boatfly and knelt down beside her. "It's your knee, isn't it? What did the doctors at the Vault tell you? You still haven't told me."  
"Agh, shut up about those stupid doctors, I didn't go, okay? My knee is fine, I'm fine!" Madelyn snapped at him.  
Valentine sighed in frustration. She hated looking weak in any way. This wasn't the first time she snapped at him about it either, the pain seemed to make her angry. It had gotten more persistent, more common, and that wasn't helping her mood either. He knew that since she was already screaming at him it would only be a few minutes before she started throwing things. "Okay look, it keeps getting worse. I'm just concerned for you, that's all. At the very least if you don't want to do it to make yourself feel better, you could at least go to ease my worry."  
"Your mind was at ease when I lied to you about it! So why can't your mind be at ease with me just telling you that it's fine! It's fine! IT'S FINE!" On the last scream of the word fine she tried to stand, but fell back to the ground again. Filled with frustration she grabbed a piece of rubble off the ground and threw it against a wall. "You're a stupid synth! You don't even have a mind for me to ease!!! You don't even have emotions!"  
After screaming and throwing rocks and pieces of metal around for half an hour she finally just laid down on the ground in exhausted defeat. She hadn't slept for over 26 hours, and Valentine figured she would tire herself out quickly. He picked her up and carried her south, back to Diamond City. He figured Ellie might have a suggestion on how to handle the situation, after all she was human and would probably know more about this than him.  
By the time he got to the detective agency it was late into the night. He set her down on the bed upstairs and went back down to finish cleaning up some of the files that he missed under the desks earlier. As he picked up papers he considered how to convince Madelyn to go see the doctor in the vault. Or maybe he wouldn't keep trying to convince her, she obviously wasn't too keen about it so maybe he also considered what could be done in general to fix the problem.  
When he finished he went upstairs to check on her to see that she wasn't having one of the many nightmares she seemed to be plagued with. She seemed to be relaxed but as he turned to go back downstairs she reached out and grabbed his coat and pulled him towards her in a tight hug. "I'm sorry Nick. I didn't mean it, what I said about you not having a mind or emotions, you do. You really do, I was just frustrated at myself for lying to you. I felt bad for lying to you and I thought that if I could just convince myself that you didn't care that I'd feel better, I'm sorry. I'll go to the doctors if you really want, I'm sorry..." As she finished saying sorry her grip loosened and she fell back onto the bed and fell asleep before her head it the pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

"You're not wearing the brace." Valentine walked up the stairs in Home Plate and peered at Madelyn stretched out on the bed messing with her Pip-Boy. He noticed that her bed was moved so that it was way off to the left of the area and her feet was facing the stairs. He remembered her saying something about having a nightmare, and since her bed used to be close to the edge, when she jerked and fell of the bed, she also fell off the second floor and landed on her kitchen table below.

"That's right." After the doctors at Vault 114 told her that she'd have to wear a brace on her knee to keep from injuring it further, she got even more annoyed and obstinate. "How'd you get in here anyway?"

"I just walked in, you left the door open. Again. I figured since you left it open I'd close it for you and make sure Moe didn't notice it first. I see that you're alive, so I suppose Moe hasn't gone for home yet. Should I leave?"

Madelyn sat up and quickly and propped her back up against the headboard. "No, you're already here, you might as well stay. I could use your advice, and some company. Come here." Madelyn shifted to make room for him beside her, and Valentine slowly joined her on the bed. Madelyn wrapped her left arm around him so he could see the Pip-Boy. Flipping through the different categories she reached a to-do list that the Pip-Boy offered, and she asked which of the requests she should do first.  
There was a lot to go through and it took a few hours to sort through them all, and choose one to do that wouldn't take up too many resources. It was about 9:30 at night, and suddenly Nick noticed that Madelyn had her head rested on his shoulder and her speech was slowing down. "Are you tired darling? We could resume this tomorrow if you want."

She yawned, but she said she was fine. Madelyn then clicked on the request they chose so Valentine could read what has already been done. It was pretty simple. A new settlement needed some help against some raiders.

"Do you know where the raiders are?" He got no reply and when he looked at Madelyn she was asleep. There was no clear way to unwrap himself from her arms without waking her up, so instead he just figured he'd just sleep there. Besides, he was already comfortable.


	4. Chapter 4

When Madelyn woke up the first thing she noticed was that she couldn't feel her arm at all. The next thing she noticed, was that her neck hurt a bit. She looked to her left and saw Valentine sleeping beside her. She pulled her arm from under him as slowly as she could, to avoid waking him up. She almost succeeded. but the Pip-Boy made a click as she accidentally pressed one of the buttons. Valentine woke up immediately, looked slightly panicked for a moment, then relaxed. He got out of bed and stretched, trying not to make eye contact with Madelyn.  
"Morning Nick. Tried not to wake you, but I guess that upgrade works too well." Madelyn laughed as the thought dawned on her that it was the first time she hadn't had a nightmare sleeping in her own home. She dreamt that she was talking to a tree, who was having a pretty decent conversation with her.

"Morning. I guess we should probably head out to talk to that settlement right?" Nick looked a little awkward standing next to the bed while Madelyn tried to move her arm to wake it up. 

"I gotta eat first, or I'll be laying face first on the ground by noon."

Valentine thought for a moment and said "I'll make you breakfast. You can figure out how to get to that Settlement and maybe make a list of stuff we'll need."

"Wait Nick, what time is it?" 

Valentine thought for a moment told her it was 7:59.

"Stay here a minute and meet the person who comes and says good morning to me everyday at eight. When you open the door, make sure to duck."  
As soon as Madelyn finished speaking there was a loud knocking on the door below. Valentine proceeded down the stairs and when he opened the door he ducked like Madelyn told him to, and no sooner than he did, a large hickory bat flew over head.

Moe looked down at Valentine and stated the obvious, "You're not Madelyn."

"No I am not."

Moe tried to peer into the house, but Valentine stood up and blocked his view. After a few moments of Moe trying to get around him he finally said "So what're you doin here anyways? You came here pretty late last night too," He gasped in mock surprise "you slept with her didn't you? How does that work, do synths have a di-" 

Madelyn appeared out of the darkness of the house and cut him off, "I simply had him stay here so that I might have a morning where I'm not ducking a baseball bat. You know, you've got a pretty good arm, you oughta reinvent baseball."

Moe rolled his eyes and walked away annoyed.

Madelyn looked at her Pip-Boy, furrowed her brow, and walked back into the house.

"What's up darling? You looked stressed." Nick followed her back into the house and began preparing a breakfast of a mirelurk egg omelet.

"I was looking at the request we were gonna do today and saw a quest that I didn't put on here."

"Huh?" Valentine walked over and read the request out loud. "'Meet me in the C.I.T. ruins.' Who are you supposed to meet?"

"That's the thing, I have no idea. I almost wonder if we should deal with that first."

Valentine nodded as he put the omelet onto a plate on the table. "Here, this should fill you up for a while. I feel a little suspicious about this, it might not be a bad idea to bring extra supplies."


	5. Chapter 5

As Madelyn and Valentine approached the C.I.T. ruins they immediately noticed the guy in a black coat, sunglasses, and black fedora standing near the door. They stopped a few feet away from him to consider how to handle the situation. Madelyn being the more charismatic one, she decided that she would greet him, and Valentine would hang back and make sure that there were no surprises.   
Madelyn walked up to they man and was about to speak when the man suddenly jumped forward and grabbed ahold of her shirt. In a monotone, robotic voice he spoke to Madelyn, "State your name."

Madelyn tried to wiggle from his grasp, but he didn't even seem to notice. Finally she replied in annoyance "Let go of my shirt and I'll tell you after you tell me who you are." She could hear a ringing sound emanating from him, the kind of high-pitched ring she remembered from the metal detectors in the malls before the war. It was kind of high-pitched sound that old people couldn't hear, and would annoy the hell out of teenagers and young children. 

He let go of her shirt and spoke with the same monotone voice "You can refer to me as X. State your name, and state the designation of your machine."

"My machine..?" Madelyn looked around in confusion and saw Valentine staring at something in the window of the ruins.

"My name is Madelyn. That's my friend, Valentine. Why was there a request on my Pip-Boy?"

Rather than answering her, X turned and waved at something through the window that Valentine had been staring at. When X turned back around, Madelyn could see a red light behind the sunglasses. 

Suddenly, she heard Valentine screaming at her in panic "Madelyn, run! Get out of there! Run, RUN!"

She turned on her heel and attempted to run, but someone grabbed her coat and tried to pull her back. She wiggled out of the sleeves like a kid in a game of tag, and began sprinting. Valentine shot at something behind her until she caught up to him, then he began sprinting beside her. She aimed for the water, sprinting as fast as possible. In most cases she would turn around and fight, but if Valentine was that worried she knew that it would be better just to listen. Suddenly she felt something hit her arm. she swiped at it, felt something fall to ground, and tried to ignore the blur in her vision. 

Valentine noticed that Madelyn wasn't next to him anymore, and when he glanced back he saw her on the ground. He looked up at the army of assaultrons chasing after them. One man wearing green was holding a syringer, and he guessed that he must've hit her with something. Nick began running back and started shooting relentlessly at them. As they approached him, two assaultrons picked up Madelyn and began walking back to the ruins. Several of them worked to restrain Valentine. When they finally worked the laser rifle out of his hands and he was being carried by about 7 assaultrons, he began to wonder why they weren't killing them both. He felt something touching his head, and the last thing he thought of was Madelyn.


End file.
